I have decided that this coming year I am going to do 365 intentional acts of kindness. Please join me in making our world a little brighter for others. #rocktownresilient #365actsofkindness
This year has been filled with a lot of negativity and challenges. On a personal level, I know I am blessed to have enough, maybe even more than enough. I did not go hungry. I have a home. I have stayed healthy. While work slowed tremendously for a few months our small business is surviving. While 2020 was filled with negative things, there were lots of silver linings and blessings.
The opportunity to work from home, spending more time with my girls this year, is incredible. I am still able to serve my clients and be with my family more than I ever imagined possible. The interactions I have had with friends this year have been special, whether through zoom or distanced in-person. Not having the ability to see anyone anytime makes the few meetings much sweeter. There have been so many positives in this year.
Finding ways to support others this year also has brought me incredible joy. Rotary Club of Rockingham County has not had in-person meetings since March and many of our service projects were cancelled. However, that did not stop our #serviceaboveself. I was fortunate to be able to deliver meals once a week to First Step on behalf of our club for a couple of months. I participated in a food drive for Our Community Place, cleaned up a highway, picked up trash along blacks run near Purcell Park, helped hand out food to Harrisonburg school families, and planted tulips at First Step and NENA Community Center. I supported local business by eating at locally owned area restaurants once a week at least and showing love to the servers and delivery drivers.
I also wrote positive online reviews for local companies, donated to local fundraisers and food pantries, purchased music and swag from local bands, and sent notes of appreciation to essential workers. I have tried to remember every day to wish a Happy Birthday to friends on Facebook and have sent out more thank you notes and gift cards this year than any other year before. I helped install solar panels at Eastern Mennonite School in a solar barn raising project. I found places to help others by creating online resources for home schooling, researched and published tips to make buildings safer, and created stress relief coloring pages. I also created amonthly young professionals networking group and hosted monthly education sessions for other architects. In order to support the local arts community I designed an outdoor stage that was used by both EMS and Harrisonburg High School.
I had not thought about all the good that these actions were doing for me until I watched this Ted talk that Nadia posted to Facebook.
So now after seeing this video, I am going to be intentional this coming year about putting #serviceaboveself. I will pledge to do #365actsofkindness over the coming year. Please join me and help spread kindness through the world and bring yourself happiness through action.
Join us for a SWEET Pints for Polio event at the Harmony Square Dairy Queen located at 1755 Virginia Ave. Harrisonburg, Va. This event is a fun way to treat your family and support Rotary in their fight to eradicate Polio worldwide. Just show up and buy dinner and a medium (PINT) blizzard for everyone in your entire family and bring your friends too!
Harmony Square Dairy Queen has generously offered to make a donation based on % of sales between 5pm and 8pm on October 22. Lets fill their restaurant and enjoy doing good in the world together.
Polio is a crippling and potentially infectious disease. It is caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can invade an infected person’s brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis.
Harmony Square Dairy Queen is located at 1755 Virginia Ave, Harrisonburg, VA 22802.
History of Rotary
Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated purpose is to bring together business professionals in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. It is non-political and non-sectarian organization open to all people regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, or political preference.
Blogging and Social Media use for the Construction Industry is an interesting topic for me that continues to evolve in how I see it. Social Media in our industry is brand new to some even today, a waste of time to others, and old hat to many. I used to do presentations on how to do social media in our industry years ago to help builders create an online brand. I was thinking about how I use Social Media this week a few different ways. What is Social Media etiquette? What blogs do I need to write? How personal should I be on my blog that has been in existence for 10 years – can I change direction on content? Am I adding to the noise in life or adding value with my blog and monthly newsletter?
Earlier this week at our Rotary meeting someone mentioned in passing that they followed me on Twitter. They were required to start an account for their job and don’t really use it, but followed me since they know me. He also mentioned that he was impressed that I have so many followers. It was an interesting comment since I don’t have many followers on Twitter compared to many that I follow. When I started my Twitter account ten years ago it was a lonely place – not many locals had heard of it or were using it. I basically used it to read the morning news subscribing to specific sources for the stories I wanted to hear. It was a way to filter information for me. Deb Van Horn and I used to have Tweet-Ups locally where we would invite the dozen or so local people we knew on the platform to lunch through the platform. It was a fun way to get to know people that we had only met virtually in some cases. Ten years ago Twitter was for me a calm place with the ability to create groups and build relationships. Now it seems there is simply too much information there to ever feel caught up leaving me not to use it as often or as much. Twitter’s growth locally reduced the usefulness for me somehow.
Facebook for me started as a way to connect to friends from the past. I eventually started a business page and now manage a couple of non-profit pages as well. The platform continues to change the way information is shown reducing the free views for businesses. It is a struggle for me to keep the pages all fresh with interesting content knowing that FB is throttling the views because I am not paying to “boost” them. However, it seems you must have a Facebook account as much as you need to have a website to be in business.
The amount of information that is available through blogs and social media can be or IS overwhelming. How you use those pages to benefit your business continues to evolve. For me there are questions that need to be asked on a regular basis to understand your audience and stay relevant. Where do you look for trusted and manageable amounts of information in the Construction Industry? How can you digest and share the right amount of information to stay relevant? How much should you share from your experience?
I have been doing online marketing for 10 years now. I have worked hard to stay authentic, build trust, and to stay relevant. My blog posts range from projects to building science to personal life stories. I have built a brand that people recognize in our community. I have readers and supporters of my work across the country. It is gratifying to see the work pay off. However, I continue to wonder how to improve. What should I write about next? How can I get better? Is there a better way of doing this online work? Am I being a good citizen online, in the construction industry?
It is that time of year again, The Rock Rotary annual Car Raffle Party! Get your tickets for the Rock Rotary party supporting local non-profits today! This annual event is hosted at JMU’s Bridgeforth Stadium Club Levelon February 23, 2019 from 7:00 pm – until. The event benefits several local non-profits that do great work in our community including First Step, Generations Crossing, and The Rotary Foundation. Your donation of $150 provides one pass to get into the party and one chance to win a 2018 Ford Fiesta Hatchback while helping your community. This must attend party includes an vast spread of food and drink along with some of the best networking in the valley. Join us this year for a special scale Soap Box car race event. Just send me an email or call for your ticket. I would love to see you there.
First Step: A Response to Domestic Violence believes that all people have the right to live without violence or the fear of violence. This organization is dedicated to empowering survivors of domestic violence through support and education. First Step says abuse is not always physical. Threats of violence, destruction of property and / or pets, name calling, humiliating you in front of family and friends, putting you down – all of these things are abuse. Abuse is not caused by alcohol. It is not caused by stress. Abuse happens when one person seeks to hold power over another. First Step supports people who are living with violence or the threat of violence in their lives.
Generations Crossing‘s mission is to provide high quality, innovative adult and child care for our ethnically and economically diverse community. Unique to this program is an opportunity for adults and children to develop meaningful relationships with all ages within their loving, inter-generational setting.
The Rotary Foundationtransforms gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. This foundation enables our club to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. This fund supports our local club’s grant program that has in recent years supported a grant for On the Road Collaborative, Big Brother Big Sister, and Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation.
So get your ticket as soon as possible before they are sold out. This event allows you to help three non-profits, attend a great party, and gives you a chance to win a new car!
At this year’s banquet I was given the Community Champion award by the Harrisonburg Rockingham Chamber of Commerce. It is humbling to get recognized for something that others are doing more and better than you. There are so many in my life that give their time to good and deserving causes, organizations, and movements and do it more and better than I am able. There are many that I know that have made their life mission service to others. There are many that give so much more than I am capable or willing to give, each of them volunteering for a better community.
I am fortunate to work for and now own a business that for the past 31 years (20 of which I have been part of the organization) has made serving others a primary focus. In fact, everyone in the business has a cause they are passionate about from church to civic organization to animal rights to law enforcement to education to soccer to women’s rights. I am surrounded by people who get life through giving to others in time, money, and talent. So to get recognized for the little I do is greatly appreciated. Just to be nominated by one of the hardest working business leaders in our community is an honor in itself. I so appreciate the circle of support I have in this industry and community.
Volunteering for a better community, in my opinion, is the only way we are going to achieve just that. We cannot wait on regulations, laws, or politicians to make it happen. We each need to reach out to a brother or sister and help them up that next step. It can be as simple as a smile to warm a dreary day or it can be joining an organization like Rotary to magnify your efforts around the world. You could join an organization likeShenandoah Valley Partnership with the idea that a rising tide raises all boats and work to build an even stronger economic future for the valley. Maybe your passion is for Harrisonburg’s downtown, you can join, volunteer, and support the efforts of HDR as they support the healthy growth of our downtown community. Want to make a lasting impact – offer to provide job shadow opportunities for a student at Harrisonburg High School– just contact Bethany and she will set you up. Want to share your passion with a larger group of students, check out the amazing work being done by On the Road Collaborative. If you think technical education is important, find ways to support Massanutten Technical Center through sharing time, donation, or talents. Like to bowl, consider helping Big Brothers Big Sisters of Harrisonburg-Rockingham County by bowling for kid’s sake. If you want to support local music, Red Wing Academy is one of the best I have ever experienced for instrumental knowledge and the Shenandoah Children’s Choir for vocal musical talents. There are so many opportunities to help, we have started putting links to organizations we love hereto make it easier for you to find them. It does not take a lot of effort to make a huge difference, from wearing pink to swinging a hammer, there are lots of opportunities to do good in this community.
Thanks to all that do so much to build a better community, especially to those that offer kind words and gestures of support like taking time to write a nomination or just reaching out on a gloomy day!
The Soap Box Derby is an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to build knowledge and character, and to create meaningful experiences through collaboration and fair and honest competition. The core values learned from this event include: leadership, family engagement, honesty, integrity, perseverance, innovation, entrepreneurship, teamwork, collaboration, and sportsmanship.
There are three classes of racers: stock, super stock, and masters. The winners of each division from Harrisonburg will have the opportunity to move on to Akron, Ohio. Soap Box Derby champions from around the world come together in Akron each year to compete in the First Energy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship at the world-famous Derby Downs Track.
The day of the race, set up started at 5 am with a few dedicated Rotarians and friends.
Race day t-shirts are handed out with sponsors on the back. We rely heavily on sponsors to make this event financially viable.
Matt starts the race day safety meeting with drivers. We work hard to make sure everyone has fun, but most important is safety.
The parade of drivers to their cars.
Drivers ready for the race day picture with all the cars lined up in the pit.
This year we added a Super Kids race so that kids that cannot drive a car can partner with another driver to race. Our Super Kids sponsor, Harmony Square Dairy Queen will help make it possible for our champion to travel to Akron.
Our track has a curve making it unique. Most Soap Box Derby tracks are straight.
We added a banner at the start finish line to highlight our sponsors.
Heading down the hill. Our Rotary Club supports Boys and Girls Club by providing cars.
The kids support one another and help everyone have a great time.
Everyone has a great time! I mean everyone, even the out of shape volunteers.
The finish line: the goal to get there first for each driver, but if you do it is simply the start of something else. The kids showed incredible sportsmanship that day. Each encouraged the other to do even better. This is why we do it. This is the heart of Rotary Club of Rockingham County (Virginia) This is service above self.
